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mfkelly323's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
erboe501's review against another edition
5.0
This was an absolutely captivating listen. I knew nothing about Liberian history and had never even heard of Sirleaf before this book. I'm sure I'm not the only ignorant American, and that needs to change. Because her story is remarkable! I appreciate all of Cooper's background on Liberia and how it fits into larger social and cultural waves and history with other African countries. For someone unfamiliar with Liberian customs, Cooper does a good job of contextualizing the things that are very different from American customs (like the uncomfortable expectation that you rape women, not jail them).
At the end of this book I'm left with this residual horror at how awful the Liberian civil war was for so long, and how it was never discussed in history classes growing up. Because of the movie Hotel Rwanda, one of my high school classes discussed the Rwanda genocide. Liberia would have dovetailed well with that discussion, and has even more relevance given Liberia's American roots. The statistic that haunts me the most: 70% of Liberian women were raped during the civil war. The final chapters on the Ebola outbreak were also very eye-opening, since that's something I can remember hearing in the news. I never thought about how these countries dealt with the disease, and how cultural attitudes about familial responsibility and communication impacted the disease's spread.
One thing that I'm slightly wary of is how one-sided this portrait of Sirleaf might be. There are hints about times when she made poor decisions, like nepotism during her presidency, that Cooper mentions. I can't help but wonder, is there more to these asides than discussed in the book? To her credit, Cooper does characterize many of Sirleaf's decisions as erroneous when that's appropriate. But she always circles around again to the positives. Which is understandable given the outlook of the biography: this is a celebration of the first female president of an African country. But what might the other side of the story say?
Bias, nepotism, and gray areas aside, Sirleaf really does have an inspiring story. It was an emotional roller coaster to read about her life. I would highly, highly recommend this book.
At the end of this book I'm left with this residual horror at how awful the Liberian civil war was for so long, and how it was never discussed in history classes growing up. Because of the movie Hotel Rwanda, one of my high school classes discussed the Rwanda genocide. Liberia would have dovetailed well with that discussion, and has even more relevance given Liberia's American roots. The statistic that haunts me the most: 70% of Liberian women were raped during the civil war. The final chapters on the Ebola outbreak were also very eye-opening, since that's something I can remember hearing in the news. I never thought about how these countries dealt with the disease, and how cultural attitudes about familial responsibility and communication impacted the disease's spread.
One thing that I'm slightly wary of is how one-sided this portrait of Sirleaf might be. There are hints about times when she made poor decisions, like nepotism during her presidency, that Cooper mentions. I can't help but wonder, is there more to these asides than discussed in the book? To her credit, Cooper does characterize many of Sirleaf's decisions as erroneous when that's appropriate. But she always circles around again to the positives. Which is understandable given the outlook of the biography: this is a celebration of the first female president of an African country. But what might the other side of the story say?
Bias, nepotism, and gray areas aside, Sirleaf really does have an inspiring story. It was an emotional roller coaster to read about her life. I would highly, highly recommend this book.
ekb523's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this book!! Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a fascinating woman, and her story is pretty incredible. Highly recommend
barbaraskalberg's review against another edition
4.0
Such an interesting story and so many oxymorons/juxtapositions... Libera, on one hand, seems so backward and savage yet, on the other hand, elects a female president in a free and democratic election before the more progressive, first world country the USA? Ellen Sirleaf goes from a battered wife to the first female president Libera. I hope she is the woman portrayed in this book.
johndiconsiglio's review against another edition
3.0
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female president & a Nobel Prize winner, couldn’t have commissioned a more flattering bio than Pulitzer Prize-winner Cooper’s adoring profile. It’s all about her indomitable willpower as she survives coups, prison, near-execution & Ebola. Complications need not apply. The too–conversational tone (please, please, stop calling her “Monkey”) can make this feel like history-lite, even as it keeps the story moving. Brisk, not bold. Fans won’t mind.
listen_learn's review against another edition
4.0
I'm not sure if I enjoyed this book because I learned so much or because it was conversational or because the subject was interesting. I guess it was probably a combination of all three.
Recommend for anyone who is interested in emerging democracies, strong women leaders, and who doesn't mind some what graphic imagery and language.
Recommend for anyone who is interested in emerging democracies, strong women leaders, and who doesn't mind some what graphic imagery and language.
r_eva's review against another edition
5.0
I started this book with the expectation of getting an insight into the life of the first female African President but I got so much more. From a breakdown of the events that led to the civil war in Liberia to other female leaders that "carried Liberia on their backs", this book weaves a beautiful tale of perseverance, determination, struggles and triumph. I love how Cooper doesn't hide Ellen's shortcomings and it shows that every human, no matter how extraordinary they might seem, makes mistakes.
I recommend all 500+ pages of it for every woman that doubts herself and struggles with being heard and making an impact in the environment she finds herself.
I recommend all 500+ pages of it for every woman that doubts herself and struggles with being heard and making an impact in the environment she finds herself.
gpettey19's review against another edition
5.0
5 stars for how absolutely HYPE this book got me.
Halfway through, I started watching YouTube videos about EJS and one included a clip of adults chanting, "Who comin'?" with kids chanting back, "Ellen comin'!" ....Guess who was dancing around her house for a week singing, "Who comin'? Ellen comin'!" (to Christian's exasperation)?
I have no idea what inspired me to pick this up but I'm so glad I did. It was as much a biography as a lesson in Liberia's modern history, which I knew embarrassingly little about despite a closely tied history with the U.S. and having a community of Liberian friends and students in Minneapolis.
I'm sure this glossed over many of President Johnson Sirleaf's shortcomings. But it was a wonderful introduction to an incredible and empowering history. And it was so well written; I'd love to read the author, journalist and Liberian-American [a:Helene Cooper|1163783|Helene Cooper|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1274136562p2/1163783.jpg]'s, memoir [b:The House at Sugar Beach|2643182|The House at Sugar Beach|Helene Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348485716l/2643182._SX50_.jpg|2667918] soon, too.
Trigger warning in the book and below re: sexual violence.
Women carry so much internal baggage. First democratically elected woman president, Nobel Peace Prize winner, global female icon, in the middle of battling an Ebola epidemic ravaging her country, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had fixated, again, on her failure to baptize one of her sons half a century ago.
Let people talk; they were going to talk about her anyway.
In Liberia a woman’s place is in the market, selling oranges and potato greens and kola nuts. It is in the hot outdoor kitchen, sweating as she bends over a mortar to pound fermented cassava for fufu. It is in the field, baby strapped to her back as she hacks at the sugarcane stalks that will fetch the money that will pay for this semester’s school fees for her children. And it is on her back in the dirt as one, two, three, four drunk soldiers rape her in front of her crying children.
Little girls do not come out of the womb vowing to become activists for female power. They don’t spend their childhood thinking about how they will repair the indignities, large and small, that bleed women daily. It’s a series of things that multiply and turn ordinary women into movements of female determination. You’re living your life, sweeping floors at Rennebohm Drug Store in Madison, Wisconsin, when your husband storms in to yell at you in front of your white boss lady. You’re huddling with your sons inside your house at night, wondering what catastrophe awaits you, while that same husband sits in his parked car outside for hours. You’re stunned by the violent shock of a hand slapping your face, delivered by the man who promised to love, honor, and cherish you till death do you part. You feel the warm, wet skin of a brutalized, naked, hysterical young woman as she crouches in the corner, bleeding, after being savaged by the men who swore an oath to protect Liberia and her people.
In Liberia, the war turned every woman into a market woman. Rich and poor, elites and native women, educated and illiterate, the overwhelming reaction of the Liberian women to all that was going on around them was to make market. Whatever functional economy existed in Liberia during those black years existed because of the market women.
Years later there was no shame among the women who stole their sons’ ID cards. “Yeah, I took it. And so what?” the Oma said. “That foolish boy, wha’ he knew? I carried him for nine months. I took care of him. I fed him when he wa’ hungry. Then he will take people country and give it away? You wi’ give elephant head to child to carry?”
To win as a woman, you need more than half of the female vote. You need all of it.
Halfway through, I started watching YouTube videos about EJS and one included a clip of adults chanting, "Who comin'?" with kids chanting back, "Ellen comin'!" ....Guess who was dancing around her house for a week singing, "Who comin'? Ellen comin'!" (to Christian's exasperation)?
I have no idea what inspired me to pick this up but I'm so glad I did. It was as much a biography as a lesson in Liberia's modern history, which I knew embarrassingly little about despite a closely tied history with the U.S. and having a community of Liberian friends and students in Minneapolis.
I'm sure this glossed over many of President Johnson Sirleaf's shortcomings. But it was a wonderful introduction to an incredible and empowering history. And it was so well written; I'd love to read the author, journalist and Liberian-American [a:Helene Cooper|1163783|Helene Cooper|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1274136562p2/1163783.jpg]'s, memoir [b:The House at Sugar Beach|2643182|The House at Sugar Beach|Helene Cooper|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348485716l/2643182._SX50_.jpg|2667918] soon, too.
Trigger warning in the book and below re: sexual violence.
Women carry so much internal baggage. First democratically elected woman president, Nobel Peace Prize winner, global female icon, in the middle of battling an Ebola epidemic ravaging her country, and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had fixated, again, on her failure to baptize one of her sons half a century ago.
Let people talk; they were going to talk about her anyway.
In Liberia a woman’s place is in the market, selling oranges and potato greens and kola nuts. It is in the hot outdoor kitchen, sweating as she bends over a mortar to pound fermented cassava for fufu. It is in the field, baby strapped to her back as she hacks at the sugarcane stalks that will fetch the money that will pay for this semester’s school fees for her children. And it is on her back in the dirt as one, two, three, four drunk soldiers rape her in front of her crying children.
Little girls do not come out of the womb vowing to become activists for female power. They don’t spend their childhood thinking about how they will repair the indignities, large and small, that bleed women daily. It’s a series of things that multiply and turn ordinary women into movements of female determination. You’re living your life, sweeping floors at Rennebohm Drug Store in Madison, Wisconsin, when your husband storms in to yell at you in front of your white boss lady. You’re huddling with your sons inside your house at night, wondering what catastrophe awaits you, while that same husband sits in his parked car outside for hours. You’re stunned by the violent shock of a hand slapping your face, delivered by the man who promised to love, honor, and cherish you till death do you part. You feel the warm, wet skin of a brutalized, naked, hysterical young woman as she crouches in the corner, bleeding, after being savaged by the men who swore an oath to protect Liberia and her people.
In Liberia, the war turned every woman into a market woman. Rich and poor, elites and native women, educated and illiterate, the overwhelming reaction of the Liberian women to all that was going on around them was to make market. Whatever functional economy existed in Liberia during those black years existed because of the market women.
Years later there was no shame among the women who stole their sons’ ID cards. “Yeah, I took it. And so what?” the Oma said. “That foolish boy, wha’ he knew? I carried him for nine months. I took care of him. I fed him when he wa’ hungry. Then he will take people country and give it away? You wi’ give elephant head to child to carry?”
To win as a woman, you need more than half of the female vote. You need all of it.